Color gauge and index



H. F. RUEGER COLOR GAUGE AND INDEX .Aug. 31 1926.

Filed Oct. 24, 1922 R ID OOO OOO

OOOOOOOOOO O O O O O O Y ID OOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO INVENTOR. [ERMA/v F. R UEGEK MW ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 31, 1926.

UNITED STATES HERMAN F. RUEGER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

COLOR GAUGE AND INDEX.

- Application filed October 24, 1922. Serial No. 596,540.

My invention relates to a color gauge and index designed specially to facilitate the work of color printers or engravers in securing in a reproduction the precise tints, hues or shades of color appearing in an original bythe use of suitable proportions or values of basic colors which, employed together, will produce the particular color, tint, hue or shade of said original or a part thereof. The invention is particularly use ful when the reproduction is by printing plates etched, half-toned, stippled or otherwise prepared to take respectively the required amount of a basic color in order, by

successive printing by said plates over the same areas, to secure upon the surface of the printed sheet the desired tint or shade to be reproduced. V

In carrying out my invention I employ a sheet or plate preferably of material like paper or cardboard or other substance, laid off in blocks, sections, areas or spaces colored on the face of the plate with different tone values, hues, tints or shades of colors required to be matched, each .said

block or section being adapted to permit the colors of an object, as for instance, a colored picture or print, 'to be reproduced, to be viewed through it for the purpose of identifying the color of the object or a portion thereof with a particular color, tint, or shade of color on any particular block or area of the gauge. The identity of the colors is readily recognized by reason of the fact that the surface of the particular area on the plate and the colored surface of the ob ject when viewed through the plate are in immediate juxtaposition and when viewed together will appear as a space or area of a uniform tint, shade or color. To enable the color of the object to be viewed through each space, I prefer to perforate a portion of the colored area of each space with a perforation or opening of any desired size extending through the plate or sheetand which may be circular or of any other form, shape or design.

For each differently tinted or colored area there is provided an indication of the values of the basic colors or combinations thereof which, applied to the same surface, will produce the particular color, tint, hue or shade identified in the said sheet or plate. This indication may be preferably applied on some portion of the square or area. Said indication may, if desired correspond original.

to the etch or half-tone preparation required in order that the different plates used in the color printing process may respectively take up the required or necessary proportions or amounts of the basic colors which are superposed by the printing operation on the reproduction in order to produce the exact tint or shade of color of the original.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown, in plan, a form of color gauge and inlicator embodying my invention. (Fig. 1.

Fig. 2 is a cross-section through Fig. 1 on the line 22.

1 indicates a plate or sheet of any desired material such as paper, cardboard or metal, preferably made thin so that when applied to an object such as a colored picture, the front or tinted areas or surfaces of the gauge may be brought as close as possible to the colored portions of the surface of the The face of the plate 1 is subdivided into a number of areas or spaces of any desired shape, outline or configuration, and for convenience said areas are square and maybe distinguished or separated from one another by the heavy, vertical and horizontal lines shown in the drawings although, if desired, said lines may be omitted, the difference in color or tint of the several areas serving to distinguish or separate them from one another.

The several areas shown are provided on the face of the sheet or plate with different tints or tone values of a color or of different colors so that, by applying the plate to the object whose color is to be reproduced andby viewing the same through the different colored areas, the tone value of the object may be identified with some one of the particular tints or colors appearing in the several areas.

To adapt the object to be seen through each area or space, each space may be perforated with a round or other form of opening and, for the best results, the color of the space is carried up to the edge of said opening. When, therefore, the plate 'is applied to a colored picture or other object to be reproduced by the color printin process, it becomes easy, by trial, to i entify the object or portion of the object with some one of the different colored areas, the color of the object and the color of the tinted area appearing as one through" the juxtaposition 'of the colored, surface ofthe plate and the colored surface appearing through the opening.

In conjunction with the several areas or spaces, suitable index numbers appear which show or indicate the degree to which the several plates used in the color printing process should be etched, stippled, or otherwise prepared in order that they-may take respectively the required amounts or proportions of the different basic color inks reuired or necessary in reproducing the partlcular tint of the original.

The several letters appearing in the several areas to wit: Y R B indicate respectively the basic colors yellow, red, blue. For blue in color work, as well understood, blackmight be substituted or might be even used in connection with blue, this requiring only that-there should be another stipple or etching indication member on each area in addition to the three tone.

Taking, for instance, the block or area in the fourth column from the left and third level from the top, the indications are 7 Y, 3R, 1' B. These signify that the yellow plate used in the printing process should be etched according to an etching or stipple scale to the value 7, that the plate inked red should 'be etched to a value scale of etching or stipple indicated by the number 3 and that the plate whichis inked with the basic color blue should be etched to the value 1 of the etching or stipple scale. This value scale for etching or stippling may appear, if desired, on the face of the sheet or plate as indicated at the left of the figure. It

might be, however, mounted or disposed the particular tone value in the original print or picture which it is desired to re roduce by the printing process, is identified in the original by laying the plate over the original as described. The identification number or numbers in the particular area in which the same tone value, tint or color as that of the original is found and identified will-denote the proportions of basic colors in its composition or, by the aid of the value scale, will show the extent to which the differently colored printin plates should be etched respectively to ta e up the proper proportions or amounts of the severalbasic colors.

Supposing, for instance, b applying the sheet or plate, the color 0 the object isfound to merge with and to present the creases and from which it decreases.

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same tint or tone as the colored surface of the area; block or section fifth from the bottom in the second vertical column, the whole colored area comprising the surface of that block and the surface of the object upon which the block is laid and showing through the o ning bein of a uniform tint, color or sl izde, the in ications on that block or area would show that one of the plates used in the reproducing process should be etched, stippled, or otherwise prepared for receiving the primary color yellow (Y) to the depth or extent indicated in the square number 9 under value scale, the extent of the etching determinin the extent to which the plate so etched wilf take up the yellow printing color or ink. Similarly the plate inked red and used as one of the plates employed in reproducing the same tint would be etched to the extent indicated in the value scale in the square 1 and the the reproduction of said tints may appear on'the face of the sheet or plate in any desired order or relation, I prefer to arrange them so that there shall be gradations of increasing or diminishing depth or change of color changing gradually from square or area to square or area regularly in either vertical or horizontal lines. Thus, taking the second horizontal row of areas or masks counting from the top, the changes of tints will grade from a rather strong yellow at the left, through to a red at the extreme right, and the value of Y in the successive masks would decrease from left to right while the value of R would increase, but regularly in both instances. The direction ,of changing value of the basic color and stippling or etching scale may be indicated by a colored block or symbol on the side of the plate towards which the value in- Thus in the plate shown, wherein changin values for the basic colors red, blue. and ye ow are shown the block on the side of the plate the value of blue increases in all the areas or masks from the top toward the bottom wherever it is used, and conversely decreases from Under the particular scheme or order of.

changing color values designated in the various squares, the base color yellow would appear at the upper left-hand corner and would be designated in amount or value by the numeral lO while red would similarly appear as having a value 10 in the etching or stippling at the upper right-hand corner. The tints appearing in the upper horizontal row would be those arising from changing values and proportions ofvalues where red and yellow printing plates alone are ,used and similarly the changing tints from yellow to green appearing on the left-hand vertical column would be those belonging to the printing process where two plates colored respectively yellow and blue are employed. At the right-hand the vertical column shows correspondingly the indications for chan es of tint proceeding from, at the top, a ll red to a violet at the bottom and involving etched or stipple plates for the red and blue stages of'the process, the degree of etching or stippling for the blue plate increasing from the top to the bottom, while that for the red remains the same. The other masks or areas indicatethe changing values and proportions of value of the stippling or etching for the several plates where three basic colors-red, blue and yellow, are employed, and according to the orderly scheme above referred to, and as indicated in the second horizontal row from the top, the value of Y would diminish from the left to the right successively through the masks or areas while that of It would increase. This is likewise true of the remaining horizontal rows proceeding from the top towards the bottom but, as indicated by the blue symbol B or basic color block at the bottom of the sheetor plate, the value of blue increases in the several horizontal rows respectively proceeding from the top to the bottom, with a corresponding change in the tint, color or hue on the face of the individual masks or areas.

Obviously, other variations or combinations of numbers or scale values for the dif-' ferent basic colors, with a corresponding increase in the number of shades, tints or hues, may be employed. Thus for instance, the value of Y may increase rom bottom to top of the sheet or plate, the increments of red and blue proceeding in thesame direction as already described, the respective faces of the blocks or areas being tinted to agree with the tints produced by those dif ferent combinations of color and etching of the various printing plates. In this instance, inasmuch as the red is of the smallest value at the left of the plate and the strength of the blue increases while that of the yellow decreases from the top toward the bottom, the tints in the left-hand vertical row of squares or areas would show yellow changing gradually to blue in the bottom corner and the squares toward the upper righthand corner would have different tints of a reddish orange grading from one to the other horizontally to the right and vertically toward the top until, in the upper right-hand corner, a tint due to equal values of Y and B would appear. In this instance, proceeding horizontally towards that portion of the sheet by the horizontal rows, the values Y and B in each row would be the same in the successive squares while the value R would increase from left to right until it became a maximum in the extreme right-hand vertical row but, in the successive rows proceeding from top to bottom, the proportions of Y and B- would be different, Y decreasing and B increasing from row torow.

Obviously, still other gradations of tint or color appearing on the face of the different squares or masks and corresponding to different combinations of base colors and of the related stipple or etc-h values could be used on a sheet or plate. In illustration of this fact it may be stated that the value of R might increase from the top downwardly and of blue from the bottom upwardly, while that of Y increases from side to side as for instance from right to left, or red and blue, each having a maximum value 10 in the lower row, might decrease equally one unit at a time from row to row upwardly and yellow decrease from maximum at the right of the sheet'by decrements of unit value toward the left and be of equal value in all the blocks or quares of any row. As a further instance, the blue and yellow values could decrease in the several horizontal rows respectively from the bottom to the top and the red in the several vertical rows respectively decrease from the right to the left or, under the same scheme, red and yellow appearing in maximum equal value in the right-hand vertical row could decrease by equal decrements in the vertically through the horizontal rows and vanish in the top or eleventh row, counting from the bottom. In a similar way the red and yellow could vanish in the eleventh vertical row proceeding from the right, leaving said row to show only different values of the primary blue from 10 at the bottom to 1 at the tenth from the bottom,'the blue vanishing in the upper block which would then show white.

From the foregoing it is obvious that an infinite number of tints or difierences of hue, shade or color may be provided for by my invention.

In the drawing a sheet divided into areas or masks providing for 121 different tints, hues or colors to be identified in the original is shown. For convenience of handling other tints or gradations of tints or color values would be provided for on other sheets or plates to any desired number. Obviously, however, the size of the sheet might be increased and the size of the individual areas diminished to provide a still greater number of comparison masks than the humber shown, my invention not beingdimited to any particular number and in some classes of work where the number of gradations of tint or color is not large, a color gauge and indicator aving a smaller number than shown might be sufiicient.

WVhat I claim as my invention is 1. A color gauge and indicator consisting of a plate whose surface is sub-divided into spaces or areas having different hues, tints' or gradations of shades or color and each area provided with means to allow the tint or shade of an object to be viewed through it, said spaces being each provided with an indication of the degree of stipple, etching orhalf-tone required in the several plates respectively employed to reproduce the color of the original by the successive use of said plates inked with different basic colors.

2. A color gauge and indicator consisting of a plate or sheet of opaque material divided off into spaces or areaseach perforated and colored respectively with different shades, hues or tints of color, each said perforated area having associated with it an indication of stipple, etching or half-tone suitable for the several plates respectively used in succession to reproduce the tint color or shade of the'particular perforated space.

3. A color gauge and indicator consisting of a plate or sheet whose surface is subdivided into a number of colored spaces or areas having different tints, hues, shades or gradations of colors respectively and each area provided with means to permit the color or tint of an original to be viewed through it for the purpose of identifying its color with one of the colors, tints, or gradations of color appearing on the face of the plate, each said space or area being provided also with an indication of the values of basic colors which together will produce the articular color, tint, hue or shade identlfied in the original.

4. A color gauge and indicator-consistin of a plate or sheet adapted to be applie to and lie directly upon the surface of an original colored object whose different colors or shades areto be re roduced, said plate or sheet having its sur ace sub-divided into a number of colored spaces or 'areas having different tints, hues, shades orgradations of colors respectively, said plate or sheet being provided with a plurality of sight openings placed adjacent said colored spaces or areas to permit a color or tint of the 

